Why is it so HARD?!!

klegaddin

I have been playing NWO since it began. I never had any gripes about anything in the game. But since the last game update, you have made it neaarly impossible to SOLO in this game anymore.

Case in point, I receently made level 70 with my halfing Hunter/Ranger. It was fairly easy to solo up to level 70. Back when the level cap was 60, I could solo Icewind Dale, take on 4 Yeti's or 4 bears at the same time and walk away with 1/2 my hit points. Nowadays, I get PWNED by two bears! Two fargen bears! I cannot complete any of the quests in Icewind dale, solo. I have asked around in game to group up for these quests and I don't get any help. You either have to have in-game friends or a helpful guild, neither of which I have or have time for.

In the epic dungeons, I try to join a pick up group via the dungeon group finder. I tried Kessels Castle and I die every single fargen time, at the first monster encounter!

What did you do to the game???!!! It is too tough to play solo anymore. I cannot get any epic or legendary weapons or armor because I cannot find the group to get it done.

You really screwed the pooch on this last update.

You need to either lessen the toughness of the NPC's in the game, or give us more power and damage abilities.

The same goes with Dread Ring, Sharandar, Well of Dragons and the like.

IT IS JUST TOO HARD TO PLAY SOLO ANYMORE! and Very frustrating, dying all the time, using up valuable resources like health stones, since I don't have a lot of money to spend on Zen and buying keys to open chests to get Tarmalune bars to buy health stones.

And another thing, Why did you take Astral Diamonds out of professions?

I am 56 years old. I do not have the time to get frustrated playing your damn game. It was fun when it was easier to solo, but now I am having second thoughts about playing anymore.

I have poured nearly $1000 in the game for Zen, to help with professions, mounts, companions or upgrades, etc. The least you could do is make it enjoyable to play and not a chore like it is lately.

You went from game gods to sewer rats in my opinion!

sockmunkey

Solo play got killed when earning AD became a group activity.

As far as difficulty, I don't have a problem with having hard zones. But Cryptic needs to do a better job at warning players what to expect in those areas. A suggested minimum item level would be a nice start. Nothing restrictive, allow people in if they want the challenge, and those who don't, an idea of what to shoot for to be successful.

urabask

klegaddin said:

I have poured nearly $1000 in the game for Zen, to help with professions, mounts, companions or upgrades, etc. The least you could do is make it enjoyable to play and not a chore like it is lately.

If you got screwed that hard by mod 6 I can't really see ever wanting to try to pick the game up again. I guess you could try seeing if you have anything worth selling but even that won't make up for not having a leadership army.

Unknown

This content has been removed.

sangrine

Join a guild with the hitpoint boon. Try to get lifesteal chance up to 10% or more.
Have you tried the Angel of Protection companion?
Respec to trapper (if not already) and boost your control strength.
One of the common "mistakes" I see with HR's is when they don't switch stances (ranged/melee).
HR class is intended to be played in both melee and ranged stance, for archery/combat/and especially trapper.

HR is not an easy class to play well. Perhaps try a different class. I enjoy playing Neverwinter, but I would enjoy it much less if I only played one class.

beckylunatic

One issue in Icewind Dale areas is that some mobs are bugged and are heroic encounter strength even though they should just be normal mobs. Watch out for hitpoint bars with thick outlines, and questing gets much easier.

Unknown

This content has been removed.

iandarksword

I know it is an exhaustive mote grind, but the Drowned Weapons are useful for survivability. I've had to sacrifice offense for defense in order to solo, especially with boon and artifact choices. I still wouldn't try to solo any Heroic Encounters, even at 3k iLevel. Soulforged or Negation enchants will lengthen your time on your feet. Try to slot Silvery or Azure enchants in your Defense slots. Focus on Incoming Healing over Life Steal and get a decent healer companion. Get some Dusk boots in the pack from the Auction House, every little bit of hit points returned helps. Soon, Sharandar will drop to levels 64-68 and provide a task to earn Power Points, take advantage of that task. Just advice, take it for what it's worth.

jase2cool

I would suggest drop by by HR forum session where you can get professional guide there on your class http://www.arcgames.com/en/forums/neverwinter#/categories/the-wilds

I agree joining a guild will really help for sharing knowledge/exp, getting advise/oppion and finding party .
Furthermore being in a guild evgrant you access to BiS armor

As for what to start with i reckon with one piece of dusk armor you will able to recover certain amount of HP from time to time which comes handy in solo game.. dusk boots is fairly cheap at AH

zibadawa

That's what she said!

On a first toon IWD and WoD will wreck you solo if you aren't playing it smart and safe.

ironzerg79

When you hit 70, the first thing you should do is go to the AH and look for cheap level 70 blues to fill out your gear slots. The extra hit points in particular really help.

Also, IWD is by far the hardest of the campaign zones. Even a well-geared level 70 is going to be challenged soloing there.

And as @beckylunatic said, some of the normal mobs hanging around in IWD are HE strength. If you jump in a fight and notice you're barely scratching them, I'd bail.

But even then, I'd bail on IWD completely until you got more gear under you. And as far as boons go, the Dread Ring, Tyranny of Dragons, Underdark and Maze Engine slates are all very good. Honestly, the IWD boons are fairly lackluster as a whole when compared to those, so if I had a new toon I would absolutely focus on the other campaigns first.

dfnce

klegaddin said:

I cannot complete any of the quests in Icewind dale, solo. I have asked around in game to group up for these quests and I don't get any help.

One of ways to complete IWD early is buying of Genie gifts from AH, exchange them for IWD campaign currency and focus on primary daily mission (which is demonic HE + Black Ice mining). ToD campaign can also use some Genie boost at beginning to pass it quicker.

klegaddin said:

IT IS JUST TOO HARD TO PLAY SOLO ANYMORE! and Very frustrating, dying all the time, using up valuable resources like health stones, since I don't have a lot of money to spend on Zen and buying keys to open chests to get Tarmalune bars to buy health stones.

I suggest blue/purple healer companion, difference is huge.

durynte

I don't seem to have any problems in Icewind on my huntress, can even solo Big Grin's. And I dare say I am not suspious of using any special setup for imbalanced effects.

The character has all boons, except for last two of ToD and Underdark, where the required ingredients are out of reach for me, and Icewind Dale. She is a stormwarden trapper, just all the trapper feats.

Powers, all rank 4: Disruptive, Forest Ghost, and Hindering, Constricting, Cordon, and Aimed, Electric.
Armor: Dusk Hood and Assault Coat with lesser Soulforged, the rest is Drowcraft including rings. Stones are R8, weapons are Drowned (Mulhorand should do) with normal Feytouched. For neck and belt I usually choose some artifacts with stats that fill in some of the missing bits. Artifacts are all purple. For companions I chose the 4 archons, all green, and a purple Lillend, all stones R8 and blue items slotted.
HP is 100k, Power 11, crit 5, amorpen 3.5, recovery 3.1, defense 3, deflect 2. And then some 1k for life steal and regeneration.

To me it was helpfull to get HP to 100K, and deflect to 2k for damping the big booms. Also the Lillend is nice, she dazes the mobs and heals. There are some Drowcraft shirt and pants on the AH, for a starter.

deathbeez

Post your char sheet.
IWD and Kessels can be hard.
So I'd skip them, gear up with Underdark stuff, get those boons in the easier areas.
You can get Underdark marks with Heroics in WoD.
Run Throne of the Dwarven Gods which is 300% easier then KR and make $ and get more Underdark marks for more gear.

And when you're totally overpowered, come back then crush IWD.

If you got the $, I'd suggest an upgraded Acolyte of Kelemvor over an Angel (which I think sucks).
10% DR, 25k heals, and 7%+ life steal. Procs bonding stones really fast and avoids agro.
If I ever find myself having to tank in this game again, I'd pull her out of retirement.

But I'd forget the heal pet route for now and just skip ahead to the Underdark/Maze content then return to IWD later.
You won't need a heal pet.

If you put $1K into this game for real (like my girlfriend has) you'll have some good companions with passive bonuses and mounts for insiginia bonuses. You already have the most expensive parts of a killer-build covered. If you find yourself over 3+K item level and you're still struggling, I hate to say it, and don't take this personally, but you might need to review your build and maybe look at HR build guides for more efficient and effective HR set-ups.
Good luck and have fun.

tazz4now

"But since the last game update, you have made it neaarly impossible to SOLO in this game anymore."

From what you have posted I am guessing you are a returning player and haven't played since prior to Mod 6 (even though you state "since the last update", that being said you need to look at all of the above suggestions and instead of trying to do the content you "used" to do, you need to start/continue/finish doing the dragon campaign (I can't remember the proper name), also start the "Elemental Evil" campaign, you can start doing the "Bruener Battlehammer" quests, do the quests given by the NPC at the tree (which you can start working on a new artifact weapon set), also either during or after start the "Underdark Campaign", all of this can be done SOLO or at least with only 1 buddy, then you will have better gear (with the level 70 AH blues) and new Artifact weapons, when you have finished ALL of this SOLOABLE content, THEN AND ONLY THEN should you start going into Sharandar, Dread Ring, IWD, etc, these areas were made for higher level people in either Mod 5 (the Elemental Evil Mod).

Also do yourself a favor (as someone above suggested) go to the HR forum and find yourself a build suited for the Mod 5 changes. Just an FYI you are not complaining about anything new that most of us have been complaining about since Mod 5 came out. If you "still" want to play this game and "want" to play it a bit easier, you might want to try playing a different class (as was mentioned above), BUT if you still want to play your HR, then make the changes (as all of us have tried to help with) AND change your mindset to this being a totally different game since you were last playing. This game is still fun and does still have quite a bit of soloability to it if you aren't interested in a guild or joining the /legit channel.

minotaur2857

Unfortunately, the nerfs really make it so you HAVE to go trapper if you want to have much fun solo. That said, guild boons, sharandar and maze engine are the places to start not IWD and WoD, DR is in the middle when you're ready for it. Also do the demonic HEs in WoD to get rings to either use or salvage for ADs plus progress the demonic campaign.

demonmonger

From my experience, you can pour lots of money into this game, then when another mod comes out all you bought is useless.
I have spent over $3000.00 focusing on regeneration before it got nerfed. Then it happened regeneration got nerfed to no longer work in combat. So then I invested in life steal and life steal enchantments/artifacts + movement speed.

Just remember that we are in eternal beta mode, don't spend a dime until cryptic makes an agreement that the core game mechanics will never be changed. Otherwise you are going to be butthurt somewhere along the road.

All the insignia bonuses and other changes have been a turn off for me. Let's see what guild alliances can do to revive the game yea?

hustin1

Soloing has indeed become much more difficult than it was, but to me the major reasons date to the start of mod 6. How it became more difficult depends on your class and your play style.

My play style prior to mod 6 relied on regen rather than lifesteal, and ever since mod 6 went live no one can regenerate while fighting (which, as I've pointed out as nauseam since the change, is when you most need it). Since then, all classes that cannot self-heal must use one of these strategies:

- Group with someone who can heal them
- Use a healer companion
- Wear a piece of Dusk armor
- Obtain and use the Drowned elemental weapon set

I went with the last one for most of my characters, and a few have at least one Dusk armor piece. In the case of my main (who is an archer-build HR), I added two more strategies: I stacked her Defense stat to the maximum extent possible. Her native, non-buffed defense stat is about 29.2k, which, when added to her Lathander set, brings her damage resistance above 80%. The second strategy was to get a chicken augment, for those cases where I really need to get away from an enemy who has hit me too hard. Everywhere except for Epic dungeons, it's a very effective strategy. The downside (and it's an enormous one) is that to get defense that high means all R12's everywhere that defense counts, including R12 Bonding runestones (including on all three pieces of Loyal Defender gear that the chicken is wearing).

It's an obscenely expensive strategy, and it doesn't really help in epic dungeons. She can take a single hit from just about everything, but the instant that they get combat advantage, she's a dead duck. Combat advantage, for some reason or another, is essentially an "I win" button for your enemies when they achieve it.

If you tend to rely on lifesteal (and if you're a Temptation warlock you have to), mod 6 also made it vastly harder to solo. Instead of always getting some HP, now it's an all-or-nothing deal: you either get 0 or full HP, and you have to stack lifesteal to improve your chance of success. The rationale from the devs at the time was that magic equipment is inherently fickle, but the same argument can be made for any stat bonus, whether it be defense, power, armor penetration, or anything else. The fact that only lifesteal was singled out for this special treatment puts the lie to that argument, but I'm beginning to digress. The major point is that self-healing using lifesteal became an extremely unlikely event unless you stacked it to similarly insane (and expensive) levels as I do with defense -- which you cannot do anyway with the way that enchantments and runestones currently grant bonuses.

Eventually the devs admitted what we already suspected (I would say "knew", but I'll be generous). They made the changes to carve out a niche for the paladin class. Prior to the changes, you had legions of CWs doing epic dungeons without the need for any healers: they did so much damage that their lifesteal alone was sufficient for any healing needs. To get people to bring healer classes along on group content, the devs (in my humble opinion) eviscerated survivability for everyone. A lot of us pointed out what I would consider the obvious: a mere cap to the benefits of lifesteal would have sufficed (as regen, while useful, wasn't powerful enough to be abused to that degree). We told them this for months, even before it went live. They didn't listen, though to their credit they did later acknowledge that they at least should have.

So, that's where we stand today. If you solo, you absolutely need a piece of dusk gear and/or the Drowned set. This is why, as leader of my guild, I keep our guild bank well stocked with Dusk Boots Packs for new members -- I know full well how unfair soloability has become from having to shepherd new players through the content. For myself, I can tell you -- I will never give up my Drowned weapons. I might refine whatever new ones come down the pike, but I'll never use my Drowned set to do it. They're too important.

durynte

I have this one level 70 character only, that ventured all the campaigns and someday soon is about to finish the black ice infusion.

While on the journey I frequently picked items and stats that support survivability for soloing. Being a formidable support member for epic dungeons is all nice and sweet, but if you can't survive on your own you are locked into group play. I prefer venturing at my own pace and picking up anybody who is there for lairs or difficult quests. So yes, solo survivability to me is pretty much the most important property of my characters.

Have a big HP cup for heal to put their refreshing tee in, some defense and deflect, have a Soulforged, have potions, have some health stones, having Lathander's set won't hurt and can be done away with later. -- The OP probably just got a little out of rhythm on how to gradually improve the character.

plasticbat

I have a feeling that OP left and never came back after he vented.

demonmonger

I know how he feels...
Give him a few weeks or a month..
This game is like all bad habits and bad girlfriends, hard to quit without picking up another one.

solbergx

I died a lot in KR with my level 70 control wizard when i was fresh level 70 newb!

I had same problem as you, I died so fast on IWD so i started with boons on sharandar and tyranny of the dragons, then dread ring and elemental evil! I mainly played Kessell retreat and got all the seals to buy all the armor and then moved on to others dungeon, try buying an augment companion!!

I am doing IWD just now, and i kill them easy, the thing that made the difference besides dusk armor, was the augment pet, after i had it i started doing real damage on all those dungeons!!

Make sure you visit the forum for hunter range to know which items are best to slot on the augment companion and which one its best for your class!

I tell you this, i have played a lot of MMO since 2003 and i still have not found one that gives you a nice feeling as this game!!